America has turned its back on refugees in the past with tragic consequences, according to a Furman University expert on mid-20th century Jewish immigrants.

Among the thousands of Jewish refugees who were denied entry: Anne Frank, whose family sought to emigrate to the U.S. but were rejected.

Anne, author of the classic "Diary of a Young Girl," later perished in the Holocaust along with her sister and mother.

"We have failed to live up to our American ideals," said Furman English professor Melinda Menzer, who has extensively researched the Jewish refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s.

Now, as the world faces the greatest refugee crisis in history — with an estimated 65 million displaced people — how will America respond?

A Furman University panel will explore global refugee crises, past and present, in a program today (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m. in the Burgiss Theater at Furman's Trone Student Center.

The event, free and open to the public, features students involved in worldwide refugee relief efforts.

Menzer, meanwhile, will provide a historical reflection on the plight of refugees.

She sees parallels between today's refugee crisis, the largest ever, and those of the 1930s and 1940s.

Then, America denied entry to thousands of Jewish refugees, many of whom later died in the Holocaust.

Today, millions displaced by conflicts in Syria and Yemen seek hope in the U.S. but are being turned back to an unknown fate.

"We are in danger of forgetting what we learned," Menzer said.

America and refugees

The nation throughout its history has alternately welcomed and shunned refugees, Menzer said.

"There was a period in the past where it was extremely difficult for people to get into the United States," she said. "We sort of lost for a time our traditional values of welcoming the stranger and providing a safe refuge and opportunity. We really lost that vision in the early to middle 20th century."

The U.S. became more receptive to refugees fleeing communism in the 1950s and 1960s.

"In some ways we are returning to mid-20th century restrictions," Menzer said.

President Donald Trump has called for sharply curtailing refugee entries and has imposed a travel ban on citizens of seven Muslim countries.

"President Trump wants to lower the cap on refugees to the lowest possible level, which is interesting because we are in the midst of the largest refugee crisis that the world has ever seen," Menzer said. "We are lowering the cap to the lowest level at a time when the need is in fact at the greatest it has ever been."

Menzer added that refugee entries in the U.S. already are far lower than they were in the early 1990s.

Cracking down

America first began a major crackdown on refugees and immigrants with the National Origins Act of 1924, Menzer said.

"It's the major turning point in American immigration policy," she said. "The National Origins Act was put into place explicitly to allow in people who were emigrating from northern and western Europe — Germans, English and French — and to exclude people who were from eastern and southern Europe. They believed that eastern and southern Europeans were not going to assimilate to American values. They were ethnically unsuited. Russians and Italians would never become good Americans. Those were the 'bad immigrants.'"

The act specifically targeted Catholics and Jews, Menzer said.

"It absolutely tied into religious bigotry," Menzer said. "Those people were Catholics and Jews. Their values were not American values — this is what people said. Looking back on this today, that seems crazy. But that was the feeling at the time."

"Refugees Past & Present” is sponsored by the Refugee Task Force, the Shucker Leadership Institute, and Furman Departments of Religion and English.

Paul Hyde covers education and everything else under the South Carolina sun. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.